Ten Things That Never Happened to Sam Carter
by Brenna
Summary: A series of drabble crossovers of things that could have happened to Sam Carter but didn't. This series is on the installment plan. There are currently five chapters.
1. Cataclysm : Jericho

Sam was still unpacking her new office in "Neverland" when major U.S. cities started falling off the map. It being Area 51, their first thought was alien invasion. Because of her field experience, Sam found herself summoned to the base command center but all she could was watch along with the others as more cities fell off the map. Within minutes military satellite images showed mushroom clouds over Denver, Baltimore, Atlanta, and the other cities.

"Not aliens," Sam decreed. "They would have used energy weapons. Those are mushroom clouds," she said pointing to the screen. "Nukes." She closed her eyes on a wave of nausea remembering Daniel's suffering and death after Kelowna and said a silent prayer for the thousands if not millions who would soon be suffering the same.

"The Russians," General Freemont growled. He'd come up through the ranks during the height of the Cold War and would forever think of the Russia as the enemy.

"If it had been the Russians, we'd have detected the launch of the missiles," a major whose name Sam had yet to learn informed the general. "Same thing if they'd used bombers, sir."

The general looked to her for confirmation. "The major's correct," she confirmed.

A young lieutenant said what they were all thinking, "Terrorists."

"God help us," Freemont whispered.


	2. Cold Comfort : The Day After Tomorrow

She was spending a rare day off shopping in Denver with Janet and Cassie when the weird weather began. Standing in front of the television displays in the Best Buy while Cassie browsed through the CD's, Sam shared a look with Janet as tornadoes ripped through downtown Los Angeles. Considering their work, neither woman could believe the phenomenon was natural.

"I'll get Cassie," Janet told her friend as she handed over her keys. "You bring the car around to the entrance."

"Good idea," Sam agreed. The two women headed in opposite directions, and Sam broke into a jog as soon as she'd exited the mall. As she moved quickly toward the car, she dialed the switchboard at the SGC. When Sam braked to a stop at the entrance, Janet and Cassie were waiting. As Janet motioned Cassie into the backseat, Sam saw that her eyes were wide with fear. She reached across the seat to squeeze the teenager's hand as Cassie reached to fasten her seatbelt. "It's going to be okay," she told the girl.

"Is it the goa'uld?" Cassie asked.

"I don't know yet," Sam told her. "The switchboard at the SGC is ringing busy."

"We're probably not the only ones calling in," Janet realized.

Sam disconnected the call to the switchboard, then dialed Sgt. Harriman's direct extension. "Walter will know what's going on," Sam decided.

"Sgt. Harriman," the voice on Sam's cell phone announced after the second ring.

"Walter, it's Major Carter," Sam announced as she handed the cell phone to Janet in order to have both hands free to drive. "I'm with Dr. Frasier and her daughter in Denver. You're on speaker. We saw the news about the weather. What's going on?" she asked.

"Major!" the sergeant cried with heartfelt relief. "It's good to hear from you, ma'am. We're not sure what's going on yet," he told her. "We don't have any unusual visitors as far as we can tell." He ran down all the information about the unusual weather as he knew it. "Major, Colonel O'Neill and General Hammond are here. I'm putting you on speaker," he informed her as he finished his recitation.

"Major, where are you?" General Hammond asked.

"We're on I-25 heading toward Colorado Springs," Sam told her commanding officer.

"Head directly here, major" he ordered her.

"Sir," Janet interrupted. "We have Cassie with us."

"Understood, doctor" the general told her. "We'll have someone take her home when you get here."

Because of the blizzard snow, it was nearly three hours later when they reached the turn off for the Mountain. Sam doubted that they could have made it this far in her little sports car. It was just luck that they'd brought Janet's SUV so they'd have room for the haul from their shopping extravaganza. Throughout the drive, they'd received updates from Walter every fifteen minutes or so. They were still more than forty minutes from the Mountain at this slow pace, but they didn't dare go any faster on these icy roads.

"Oh God," Janet gasped as they listened to the President announce the evacuation of the southern United States leaving the northern states to fend for themselves. Sam found herself pressing the gas pedal down just a little bit more. Minutes later, Walter called them with another update. All SGC personnel were being recalled to the Mountain and were to bring their families with them. "Bless General Hammond," Janet sighed knowing that he was probably overstepping his authority if not directly disobeying an order with this act.

Fifty minutes later, Sam walked with Janet and Cassie to the first security post into the Mountain where a long line of SGC families waited to be checked in. "Colonel Jack!" Cassie shouted seeing O'Neill standing a dozen yards down the corridor from the check point giving orders to returning SGC personnel. Sam nodded to him as she left Janet to see to Cassie and walked over to him to check in.

"Glad you made it, Carter" the colonel told her. The expression on his face would tell anyone who knew him well just what an understatement that was.

"I could say the same, sir" Sam replied with a relieved smile of her own.


	3. Conscript: Men in Black

Lt. Samantha Carter slowly walks through the large metal door at 504 Battery Drive and into a long room. The wall to her right was dominated by the enormous blades of a tunnel air intake vent. Opposite the vent in the center of the room sits an old rent-a-cop security guard on a folding metal chair reading a comic book.

"Help you?" he asks looking at her with a bored expression.

"Um. I hope so, sir," Sam tells him. A week ago she'd graduated from the Air Force Academy, and this was her first posting. "I have orders to report to the address on this card," she explains holding up both her written orders and the card that had accompanied them.

"Elevator," the guard tells her as he turns his attention back to his comic book. "Press the 'call' button."

Sam quietly crosses the room with the sound of her heels on clicking against the hard marble floor echoing in the large room. The door to the elevator swish open even before she reaches it. Over her shoulder she throws the security guard a puzzled look before stepping into the elevator. The door to the elevator quickly closes behind her as she turns around. Noting the "call" button the guard referred to, Sam pushes the button. Nothing. Just as she's about to push the button again, someone behind her clears their throat. She whirls around, startled. "Oh!" she exclaims.

The room into which she steps is stark white. The man standing at the front of the room looks to be in his fifties to Sam. He's wearing a black suit with all the confidence of someone with a great deal of power. "You're late," the man tells her. "Sit down." It's only then that she looks past him to the six men sitting in egg-shaped chairs at the opposite end of the room and notices that there is one chair empty. "My name is Zed. You're all here because you're the best of the best. Marines, Navy SEALS, Army Rangers...Air Force," he explains.

Each of the men sitting in the egg-shaped chairs turns to look at Sam a little smugly, but she's used to this (being a woman in the ultimate boy's club) and cocks an eyebrow back at them just to let them know she's not intimidated.

"And we're looking for one of you. Just one," Zed tells them. "What will follow is a series of simple tests designed to quantify motor skills, hand-eye coordination, concentration, stamina. Let's get going."


	4. Childhood's End: The Pretender

In the kitchen of her family home, Samantha Carter went about the mundane chore of cleaning up from her afternoon of cookie baking almost blinded by the tears dripping down her face. In the other room her father's commanding officer, Colonel Polaski, and a bunch of other grown-ups she didn't know spoke in hushed whispers they mistakenly thought she couldn't hear. 

"Neither Major Carter nor his wife had any family other than their children," Polaski said in a hushed tone.

"We'll need to contact Social Services," another man replied. Sam recognized his voice as the man who had introduced himself as the base chaplain. He had been the one as the other stood silently and awkwardly behind him to tell her that both her parents and her brother Mark were dead. Dad had taken Mark with him to pick their mother up, but he'd let Sam stay home to finish backing the cookies she'd been making for her mom. "They'll find a place for her," the chaplain said.

"She's twelve," another male voice protested. "They put the little ones in foster homes. She'll end up in a group home with the delinquents."

"Maybe," the chaplain conceded, "but there's really no other choice."

"Call Social Services," the general commanded.

Sam heard a quiet round of "Yes, sir"s from the men as she wiped the last cookie sheet dry and placed it in its proper place. Her mother always insisted on a clean kitchen, Sam knew, and just because Mom was dead... Sam didn't finish that thought. She couldn't. She filled a plate with the cookies and brought it out to the men in the living room because that's what Mom would do.

By the time the man from Social Services had arrived, so had Mrs. Polaski and several other officer's wives including the generals. That's when the shouting started. The social worker who had introduced himself only as Sydney wanted to take Sam to the group home immediately, but the officers' wives wouldn't have it. They'd sent Sam upstairs to her room where she sat just inside the door listening to every word.

"You are not taking that child out of her home the same day she's lost her entire family and dumping her in an institution," Polaski's wife argued.

"The Phillips Home is hardly an institution," the social worker protested.

"It's a facility for delinquent youth," the general's wife retorted. "It's exactly an institution. That child is traumatized. You can't dump her in there."

"There's really no other choice, ma'am" the chaplain said.

"Bob and I will take her," Polaski's wife offered.

"We will?" Polaski questioned. "Meg..."

"We will take her," Megan Polaski repeated more forcefully.

"I'm afraid that's not possible," Sydney gently objected. Sam liked the sound of his accent and wondered where it was from. "The law is quite clear."

"She will stay with us until after the funerals," Megan Polaski argued. "That will give us several days to find a better solution than the Phillips Home for Girls."

The arguing between the social worker and the officers' wives went on for several more minutes while the officers' stayed mostly out of it. Finally, the general's wife called his name in a sharp no-nonsense tone.

"Mr. Sydney, let me tell you something I've learned about marriage," the general told the young man. "It's something my wife says to me often. 'You can be right or you can be happy.'"

"Sir?" the social worker asked.

"I like to be happy," the general told the young social worker. "Miss Carter will stay with Colonel Polaski and his wife until after the funerals."

Three days later, after the funeral of her parents and brother, the social worker, Sydney, returned to take her to her new home. The day before, Mrs. Polaski had explained that Sydney had arranged for her to attend a private year round school for gifted students. It was better than the Philips Home she had told Sam, but Sam wasn't so sure. It was still a place where she would be all alone without her family.

"Are you ready, Samantha?" Sydney asked her even as he bent down to retrieve her suitcases. "We should get going as soon as possible. We have a long trip ahead of us."

Sam swallowed the lump in her throat and blinked back her tears before nodding reluctantly. She was old enough to know that even if she said she wasn't ready it wouldn't make a difference. Mrs. Polaski hugged her tightly then pressed a folded an envelope into Sam's hand. "This has our address and phone number in it and some money for anything you might need on your trip," the woman told her. "If you need anything...anything at all, just call us. Any time. Day or night."

Sam nodded as Sydney took her shoulder and turned her towards the door. "We really must be going now," he said.

Sam climbed into the passenger seat of the car as Sydney placed her suitcases in the trunk then got behind the wheel. Mrs. Polaski had given her a book of crossword puzzles to occupy Sam during the trip. So Sam opened the book and began to work. As the light started to fade hours later, Sam put the book away and stared out the window at the passing scenery. "How much longer," she quietly asked the social worker.

"A few more hours," Sydney responded. "Why don't you sleep for now," he suggested. "I doubt you've slept much in the last few days."

Sam woke hours later as the car finally rolled to a stop before a stone building that almost appeared to be sunk into the hillside. There were people outside waiting for them, Sam realized with a start. Then she realized that a lot of those people had guns. "Why do they have guns?" Sam asked as she unlocked her seatbelt.

"They're hear to protect the Centre" Sydney explained.

"A school needs this kind of protection?" Sam questioned the somewhat vague explanation as she stepped out of the car. "I'd like to call Mrs. Polaski and let her know we got here," Sam asked though she fully intended to ask Mrs. Polaski to come and get her instead.

"That won't be necessary," a small thin man with a cigarette dangling from his hand responded. "Take her to her cell."

Sam's eyes widened and she stood still with shock for a split second then took off running. Her smaller legs were no match for the athletic full grown men who quickly chased her down and grabbed her from behind. "No!" she screamed as she swung her leg back towards the man who carried her with his arms wrapped around her chest. "No!" she screamed again kicking and squirming trying to force the man to drop her.

"I told you we should have taken her sooner," Sydeny was saying to the man with the cigarette as the guards dragged her by.

"And end up with another Major Charles hunting us?" the cigarette man demanded. "No, the parents had to be eliminated first. Have her brought to my lab in the morning," he called to the guards as they dragged her towards the doors.

"There is no need for that, Raines" Sydney objected.

"You can see she's too old to be malleable," the man called Raines replied.

"You don't want another Angelo," Sydney argued.

"Angelo has his uses," Raines responded.

"Please, give me some time to work with her," Sydney plead as the guards carried her through the huge metal doors. "I know I can get her to cooperate."

Sam continued to struggle as they carried her down a long hall to an elevator. She was so focused on her struggle with the guard that she almost didn't realize that the elevator carried them down and not up. When the doors opened though it was to a long stone corridor ripe with the dank smell of being underground.

"Let me go," Sam begged the man who carried her. "Please, let me go. Please!"

The man didn't respond not even with a twitch of expression. A moment later he stopped and Sam had a brief hope that he had been listening to her pleas and was about to let her go. He didn't though. He only waited for his partner to open the door in front of their small procession. He lumbered into the room and dropped her on the cot along the back wall then walked out before she had a chance to get to her feet.

"Let me out!" Sam screamed banging her fists against the door that had slammed shut behind the two guards. "Let me go! This is kidnapping. Child abuse! You can't do this!"

"They can do whatever they want," a young voice told her.

Sam stopped her pounding. "Who are you?" she asked. "Where are you?"

"I'm in the next room," the voice replied. It came from the air vent high in the wall of her cell. When she looked she could see a boy slightly older than she herself through the metal screen. "I'm Jarod," he told her.


	5. Changling: Battlestar Galactica 2003

Disclaimer: I own neither Stargate: SG-1 nor Battlestar Galactica.

Author's Notes: This story takes place after "Continuum" for Stargate and between the Season 3 episodes "Maelstrom" and "Crossroads, Part 2" for Battlestar Galactica.

* * *

Samantha Carter stood in the observation room above one of the SGC's many isolation units watching the interrogation taking place below. Through the speakers she heard what Cam and Agent Barrett said to their guest and her replies, but Sam's mind had trouble process what she heard. Behind her the door opened.

"What did you find, Daniel?" she asked without turning away from the scene below.

Daniel paused in surprised at her seeming prescience until he noticed the reflection in the glass. It was only then that he noticed that Vala had followed him into the room.

"There was some information in the Atlantis database, but the really interesting stuff was in Merlin's records," Vala answered before Daniel could respond.

"And?" she prodded.

"Kobol was the designation for a project into artificial life," Daniel informed her as he attempted to glare Vala into silence.

"Not Replicators," Vala added anticipating Sam's thoughts smiling sweetly to Daniel as she did so.

Daniel glared once more at Vala's interruption before continuing his explanation, "It was a successor project after the Alteran Replicator project went FUBAR. They decided that bodies composed of nanites made the replicators too powerful so they gave this next project bodies made of..."

"metal," Sam said in unison with Daniel. "Sounds a lot like these cylons, she's been describing."

"Yeah, but that's not all," Vala interjected once again. "The interesting stuff was in Merlin's records...one's dealing with his Ori weapon."

"And?" Sam prompted when her focus strayed to the interrogation below.

Daniel sighed as Vala failed to continue the explanation having become distracted by the scene below. "It seems that the Others and the Ori weren't the only factions within the Ascended Alterans," Daniel said. "Apparently, there was a major conflict going on while Merlin was building his weapon. There were a lot of factions each vying for control. The Ori were actually one of the two largest factions, and a faction called the Lords of Kobol were the other."

"I think I see where this is going. The quote-unquote Other factions banded together and forced the Ori and Kobol factions into exile," Sam guessed.

"Yes," Daniel confirmed.

"So, the Others are totally hands off, and the Ori feed off their followers like vampires. I wonder what the Kobol philosphy was," Sam mused.

"According to Merlin, they were somewhere in between," Daniel told her. "They fed off their followers, but didn't really interfere with their lives. Just enough to keep the worship flowing."

"So if we think about the worship like drug use, the Lords of Kobol were the recreational users, and the Ori are the hardcore junkies," Sam suggested after thinking about it for a moment.

"Good analogy," Daniel agreed.

"I don't know if that helps us with this situation though. Do we want to involve ourselves in their conflict?" Vala asked from where she stood observing the interrogation.

"Someone wants to make sure we do involve ourselves," Sam stated.

"It seems likely," Daniel agreed. "The way her ship appeared in orbit around the Alpha site does raise some suspicions."

"It's not just that," Sam told him as she handed him the file she'd been holding. "You weren't the only one to find something interesting. Carolyn found something in her examination as well."

As Daniel opened the folder, the interrogation lost it's appeal for Vala, and she strolled back across the room to read over Daniel's shoulder. The door closed quietly behind Sam as Daniel found what Sam had been talking about. A moment later, Vala found it as well.

"Huh," Vala huffed. "That explains some things."

Daniel offered Vala another glare, but his scolding was cut off before it could begin when the two noticed Sam enter the isolation room.

Cam immediately rose from his chair, offering his place at the table to Sam before meandering to the side of the room where he propped himself against the wall.

"Oh goodie," Starbuck drawled as her lips formed an amused smirk. "Someone else has come to play."

"Miss Thrace," Agent Barrett admonished.

"That's Captain Thrace," Kara corrected. "Captain Kara Thrace of the Colonial Defense Forces."

"Captain Thrace," Barrett corrected himself. "May I present Colonel Samantha Carter."

"Pleased to meet you," Starbuck greeted Sam with a half-hearted wave. "I hope you have some new questions to ask because I'm getting frakking tired of answering the same ones over and over again."

Sam didn't respond at first. She just stared at the woman in front of her.

"Sam?" Mitchell prompted.

Carter blinked hard then took a deep breath clearly gathering her thoughts. "I do have some new questions for you," she told Starbuck. "Let's talk about your parents," she suggested.

"My parents?" Starbuck questioned as she tipped back in her chair. She seemed taken aback at the question as did her two male questioners. "What? Are you some sort of psychologist? Come to see if I'm crazy?"

"You're adopted aren't you?" Sam asked ignoring Starbuck's reaction to her choice of subject.

Starbuck's chair slammed back down to the ground with enough force to startle the two men in the room who perked up at her reaction. The smile was gone from their guest's face.

"What did your parents tell you about how you were adopted?" Sam asked.

"How the frak do you know I was adopted?" Starbuck asked in return. "No one knows I was adopted. Not even the Old Man."

"What did your parents tell you about how you were adopted?" Sam asked again with deadly seriousness in her voice.

Starbuck ran a hand through her hair as she looked at the other woman. She didn't want to answer, but the question had the same air of command about it as an order from the Old Man. She didn't want to answer, but her training was telling her she must.

"You want our help fighting these cylons you've been talking about," Carter reminded Starbuck, dangling the carrot before her. "Do you need me to repeat the question?"

"What does this have to do with the cylons?" Starbuck demanded.

"You answer my question, and I'll answer yours," Carter bargained.

Starbuck gritted her teeth as she glared mutinously at the woman who had taken over her interrogation. "My parents told me I was a gift from the Gods," Starbuck finally said. "My mother told me frakkin' Hera and Janus appeared before her and gave me to her. She said the gods told her to raise me well because I would save the colonies when I grew up. She was frakkin' crazy, okay? Who knows where they got me. I looked when I left home. I thought maybe they'd stolen me or something, but I never found anything."

Sam closed her eyes as she took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. "Our doctors found something when they examined you," Sam told her quietly.

"Found what?" Kara asked.

"They found that your DNA was already in our computers," Sam told her. "An exact match. 100% Earth human." This information brought the two men in the room to attention as well as Starbuck.

"It's gotta be a mistake," Kara denied.

"Your mother wasn't crazy," Sam informed her hesitating slightly as she said the word 'mother.' "And you were stolen, or will be..."

"Will be?" Agent Barrett asked.

"According to the DNA tests, Kara won't be born for another three months," Sam explained as she pressed a hand to the bulge in her stomach where a hand or foot was now kicking her.

"Oh boy!" Cam exclaimed as he straightened from the wall. "You're kiddin' right?" he asked.

"Daniel found references to Kobol and the Lords of Kobol in Atlantis's database and Merlin's records," Sam told them. "We know the Ancients were experimenting with time travel. An Ancient named Janus in fact."

"Holy crap!" Cam swore. He cocked his head as looked back and forth between mother and daughter noting the similarities in their appearance. It was there in their build and the color of their hair, but then he pictured General O'Neill. 'Her eyes she got from her dad,' Cam thought to himself, 'and the attitude.' "Holy crap!" he repeated.


End file.
